half sitting posture well within the darker shadow,
bound as were the rest of us.

"You remain uninjured, I trust, Madame?" I asked gently, and it
heartened me to observe the smile with which she instantly glanced up
at sound of my voice.

"No blow has touched me," was her immediate response, "yet I suffer
noticing the stains of blood disfiguring both you and my husband. Are
the wounds serious ones?"

"Nay, mere scratches of the flesh, to heal in a week. Why did you
waste your last shot on that savage who would have struck me? It was
not the will of De Noyan that it be expended thus."

"You must have formed a poor conception of me, Geoffrey Benteen," she
answered, as if my words pained her, "if you suppose I value my life
more highly than your own. But for my solicitation you would never
have been in such stress, and, whatever else may be true, Eloise de
Noyan is not one accustomed to deserting her friends."

"Yet there are fates possible to a woman more to be dreaded than death."

"Ay, and frontier bred, I know it well, yet none so bad as would have
been the knowledge that I was guilty of ingratitude. My life, my
honor, are in the care of God, Geoffrey, and if I remain grateful for
aught this day, it is that my shot proved timely, saving you from that
blow. Tell me, was it not a woman at whose command the combat ceased?"

"It was; a white woman at that, unless my eyes deceived me. She stood
on yonder point of rock, appearing a veritable queen in the sunshine."

"So I thought, a fair face enough, yet not devoid of savage cruelty.
Her presence brings me some rays of hope, making me feel I may have
less to fear in the future than you. If a woman, however debased and
barbarous, rules these savages, she will not be altogether without
heart to the supplications of a woman."

I felt less assured of this, yet it was better she be buoyed up by all
possible hope, so ventured upon no answer. There was that in the
Queen's face as she gazed down upon us that made me doubt her
womanliness; doubt if behind that countenance of wild beauty there did
not lurk a soul as savage and untamed as any among her barbarous
followers. What but a spirit of insatiate cruelty could animate and
control such fierce warriors in their battle rage? Thinking of this,
my eyes on Madame, a movement occurred among our captors quickly
challenging my attention. Fresh shouts and cries evidenced new
arrivals. These came swarming down the r